Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, I am not a member of the Labour Party and I am not a member of the Government. I am an individual, independent Labour Peer. I am entitled to my say, as I have been throughout the passage of this Bill. I shall not say a great deal, but I very much agree with the amendment moved so ably and comprehensively by the noble Lord, Lord Phillips. Of course, I shall support it in the Division Lobby. However, I repeat—I believe it should be repeated several times by every democrat—that a national identity register and compulsory ID cards are tools, not of a democratic state, but of nasty dictators and totalitarian states. That is my main objection to it. Indeed, throughout the almost 54 years for which I was a member of the Labour Party, that was its view as well. It was frightened of compulsory identity checks and cards because it believed that they were useful to nasty dictators. Under this new Labour Government, we are increasingly finding that, rather than the state being the servant of the individual and society, the individual is becoming the servant of the state. The Government are following a dangerous road, and this Bill is part of it. The Government’s position on manifesto commitments is simply not sustainable. One day we hear that manifesto commitments are sacrosanct, as we heard when we were discussing Commons amendments to the Terrorism Bill on glorification of terrorism. The Minister informed us then that it would be wrong for the Lords to reject the Commons amendment. However, on the Health Bill we found that the Government decided that they could overrule the manifesto commitment on smoking in public places. Instead of having smoking banned in certain restaurants, pubs and private clubs, there was a total ban. On that occasion, the Government said that the manifesto commitment was not sacrosanct. Today, the Government are using their manifesto commitment as an excuse for this House to accept the Commons amendments, but the manifesto commitment has again been altered. They cannot have it both ways. The noble Lord, Lord Gould of Brookwood, who is a great supporter and protector of the Government, wonders at the arrangement which the Tories, according to the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, have made with the Liberal Democrats. That is increasingly so. It is the fault of the Government. The anti-democratic policies followed in one Bill after another by a Labour Government are forcing the Tories and Liberal Democrats together to defend freedoms, individual rights and the democratic way in which this country is governed, as it has been for many hundreds of years. That is the lesson that the Labour Party ought to learn. They ought to look at themselves. I can say that, because I served in the Labour Party for far more years—and more effectively, from a socialist point of view—than many of those sitting on the government Benches. I wish, hope and pray that we will have a Labour Party such as the one which used to believe in individual freedom.